Fish Hoek is better known for its white sandy 
beach than it is for its contribution to archaeology. Nevertheless, it has revealed some interesting secrets dating back 15 000 years.
The little village, which is often accused of being sleepy, lies between two mountains: one separating it from Tokai and Constantia and the rest of the Southern Suburbs and one separating it from Glencairn and Simon’s Town and the rest of the Southern Peninsula. Fish Hoek is like a land unto itself, at least that’s what Victor Peers and his son must have thought when they discovered Peers Cave and all that lay within.
Mr Peers and his progeny were avid naturists and it was on their quest for interesting animal species that they first found the cave. It didn’t hold many live animals but the potential for discovery was too great to deny and so the father and son team began excavation in May 1927.
To begin with, they found a lot of shells, or shell deposits, which proved that the sea once covered the Southern Peninsula. They also found that they were not the first people to bring their amateur archaeological skills to the cave as previous diggers had managed to do quite a lot of damage to many of the relics. Fortunately, soon after their discovery was made public Peers and son received some basic archaeological training and were a good deal more conscientious in their approach.
They unearthed pieces of old woven reeds, ostrich egg beads, arrow heads and stone tool fragments. Together these bits and pieces told the story of the previous residents and how they survived, adding factual evidence to the theory surrounding the old Strandlopers or Beachcombers.
Lesser men might have given up after these historically significant but less than glamourous finds, but the pair carried doggedly on until they exposed three adult skeletons from around the time that European explorers first came to South Africa. The bodies were buried in a rather curious manner: they were face-down with their legs curled under their bodies.
It wasn’t much after that that the two made their biggest discovery and, despite their amateur status, earned international recognition as archaeologists. It was a skull dating back 15 000 years.
So it was that the two budding zoologists who stumbled upon the cave, which was to be named after them, found the largest brained type of humanity yet discovered, earned global fame and made Fish Hoek a place of interest for all those consumed by the ancient history of man.
(image by Gary Stewart Gary2880 (Own work) via Wikimedia Commons)
Jade Scully is a copywriter excited about writing copy and stories, blogging about the world and editing. She currently and regularly publishes her stories on a number of blogs. Jade loves animals and hopes to begin writing copy for the animal rescue charity TEARS as her contribution to the cause.
